The Flyers Beat Up the Rangers Last Night

Let's get the actual hockey out of the way up top: The Rangers generated very little offense against the Philly D in this one, Michael Del Zotto handed the Flyers one goal (scored by former Blueshirt Blair Betts), and Henrik Lundqvist allowed one to another former Ranger, Nikolai Zherdev, on a bad-angle shot. Brandon Dubinsky would score the lone Rangers goal in the 4-1 loss.

Having said all that, most of the post-game chatter didn't center around the Rangers' inability to effectively forecheck. It centered around a Daniel Carcillo hit to the head of a falling Ruslan Fedotenko — one that was not penalized. If you haven't seen it yet, here's the video, which, be forewarned, comes from the Philly broadcast.

Puck Daddy has a nice roundup of reactions, but here's the line that really stands out. Later in the game, Fedotenko spoke to one of the referees about the play, and he was asked what Marc Joannette told him. Joannette's message: "Don't duck." Lovely.

Look, Carcillo's right when he says "It's not like I took strides toward him." But, to quote Greg Wyshynski, "an elbow to the head is still an elbow to the head." In any case, no matter how Colin Campbell decides to handle it, and no matter how well Brandon Prust fought Carcillo later in the game, this isn't over. These teams meet five more times, after all.